Kingsbane Rogue is a Hearthstone archetype that unsurprisingly looks towards the stickiness afforded by that blade for its endless staying power. No matter how often the legendary dagger gets destroyed or worn out, back into the deck it goes - and it keeps hold of every enchantment added to it earlier on in the game as well.

It's a deck that's been popular for some time now, but often struggles to punch hard in whatever meta it's resurrected into. A recent balancing patch nerf to Leeching Poison didn't really help, although it's fair to say that fans of the archetype have not given up on this one.

In this latest edition of this guide we're looking at the best version of the deck for Rastakhan’s Rumble. Beyond that, we also have a whole host of other tips and tricks to keep in mind when playing the deck, including Mulligan advice, strategy tips and card combos to help you get up to speed with all the latest developments.

This article contains additional reporting by James Pickard

Kingsbane Rogue deck list and strategy

This is the version of Kingsbane Rogue that's seeing play in the Rastakhan’s Rumble meta.

Rogue

Neutral

2 x Backstab

2 x Firefly

2 x Cold Blood

2 x Southsea Deckhand

2 x Deadly Poison

2 x Toxicologist

1 x Kingsbane

2 x Hench-Clan Thug

2 x Cavern Shinyfinder

2 x Dread Corsair

2 x Eviscerate

1 x Captain Greenskin

2 x Cutthroat Buccaneer

1 x Leeroy Jenkins

2 x Raiding Party

2 x SI:7 Agent

1 x Myra's Unstable Element

Select and copy the long ID string below, then create a deck in Hearthstone to export this deck into your game.

As you might’ve guessed, Kingsbane Rogue is built entirely around the Legendary Rogue weapon Kingsbane. It begins as a fairly ineffectual 1/3 dagger in the early game, but as you buff it using cards such as Deadly Poison, Toxicologist, Cutthroat Buccaneer and Captain Greenskin it becomes the deck’s most significant source of damage and removal. The deck also comes loaded with enough card draw that you can more consistently pull it from your pile whenever it is shuffled back in.

Early game: Your whole early game is focused on steadily buffing Kingsbane or tracking it down if you don’t have it in your starting hand. Pretty much everything is put on hold until you find it. Good job you have Cavern Shinyfinder who can guarantee you’ll get the weapon, while also doing a reasonable job of contesting the board against opponents who don’t have a one damage hero power.

Mid game: Continue coating Kingsbane in buff effects and use it to keep your opponent’s board under control. The weapon should have a fair few buffs on it at this stage and you also have some decent bodies to field onto the board, including the growing threat represented by Hench-Clan Thug.

If you’re still trying to draw Kingsbane at this point then the game has likely slipped away from you, but that’s one major weakness of the deck you can run into - even with all the card cycle. It's not impossible to win by any means, but there are going to be tough times ahead. The new Rastakhan’s Rumble card, Raiding Party, should give the deck a little more consistency with another weapon draw option, though.

Late game: Now - assuming you have a decently buffed Kingsbane - you’ll want to be swinging for face damage as much as possible. You can also lean on the mass drawing effect of Myra's Unstable Element to pull together all of the burst damage that might be remaining in your deck pile - just be conscious of the Fatigue system once you've cast this.

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Kingsbane Rogue Mulligan guide

You’ll want to search for these cards in your opening hand when playing Kingsbane Rogue:

1. Kingsbane: The deck is built around this weapon so starting with it in hand will get you off to the best start.

2. Cavern Shinyfinder: An excellent way to draw Kingsbane at the start of the game, or to pull it from your deck after it’s shuffled back in.

3. Fire Fly: A very useful early-game minion that contests the board and also effectively regenerates itself into your hand.

4. Hench-Clan Thug: Get a weapon equipped the turn before you play this character and you'll be able to swing and immediately increase the Thug's stats.

5. Raiding Party: A lower priority as you really want to gain the Combo effect by playing another card first on the same turn.

Kingsbane Rogue tips, combos and synergies

It really pays to understand all of the synergies available to you with Kingsbane Rogue, so you can extract as much value as possible from each play.

To help with that, we've split out all of the combos from this particular deck list so you understand how everything works together. As the deck list is refined, so too will the advice in this section of our Kingsbane Rogue guide.

- Let's start with the basics. Any buffs you put on Kingsbane such as Deadly Poison are retained when the weapon is destroyed and shuffled back into your deck.

- You really want to achieve the bonus combo effect of Cold Blood when played, and it pairs up particularly nicely with Leeroy Jenkins. Look to achieve the bonus damage of Eviscarete wherever possible too.

- Cavern Shinyfinder is guaranteed to put Kingsbane back into your hand when played, as it's the only weapon that exists in this particular deck list.

- Don't forget to hold onto a point of Durability on your weapon before playing Southsea Deckhand onto the board. That extra Charge damage might just make the difference in a tight game.

- Toxicologist and Cutthroat Buccaneer both boost the strength of your weapon by one point when played.

- Each time you swing with your weapon, your active Hench-Clan Thug will gain an extra +1 / +1 of stats.

- Raiding Party offers another way for you to get Kingsbane back into your hand, which gives the deck a lot more consistency overall. Plus, you can draw Pirates that will buff the weapon even further.

- For each point of Attack on your weapon, Dread Corsair will cost one Mana less to play. It's very easy to reduce the cost to zero when playing this particular archetype.

- Captain Greenskin grants your weapon an extra point of Attack and Durability when played onto the board. New card Toxicologist gives it one point of Attack when fielded into play.

- Once you've cast Myra's Unstable Element your hand will be filled with cards from your deck. Make good space in your hand for this play, and don't forget that the Fatigue system will kick in once you've fully emptied your deck.

Card choices and substitutions

Kingsbane Rogue is already a well-established and well-refined deck so many of the key cards are already set in place. Here’s more detail about each one, plus some ideas for replacements if needed:

Preparation: Can be used to discount some of the more expensive spells in the deck so you can play them earlier or make impactful tempo plays to get ahead of your opponent.

Deadly Poison: An important buff for Kingsbane to steadily build up its damage potential.

Doomerang: Can deal some serious damage to a minion if you’ve been buffing up Kingsbane.

Kingsbane: The card the deck is built around. The Deathrattle means you’ll never truly discard it, and all those buffs will stick around for the next time you draw it.

Cavern Shinyfinder: A 100% guarantee to pull Kingsbane from your deck. Handy if you can’t find it in your opening Mulligan, or need to fish it back out again in the late game.

Leeching Poison: Another buff for Kingsbane. This gives you the sustain you need to survive
into the late game with all the minion trading you’ll do with the weapon. A recent nerf makes it harder to justify, however.

Raiding Party: Another way to guarantee you’ll draw Kingsbane from your deck, while also pulling a couple of useful Pirates who can buff the weapon some more too.

Walk the Plank: Provides the deck with some powerful hard removal. Some version of Kingsbane Rogue run Dread Corsair instead for the extra minion presence and better tempo play potential.

Captain Greenskin: An excellent weapon buff. If you’re feeling especially greedy you can Vanish it back to your hand to reapply the buff again.

Valeera the Hollow: Gives you an extra bit of survivability in the late game and sometimes that one extra turn is all you need to secure the win.

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